Designer Reveals His Ambitions For Olympic Park's Queen Elizabeth Area

October 15, 2012

The designer behind the "much-lauded High Line park" in N.Y. has revealed his ambitions for the area of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park that he hopes will replicate its impact in east London, according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. James Corner, whose practice, James Corner Field Operations, is responsible for the Olympic Park's South Plaza, which contains the stadium and the Aquatics Center, said that the south of the Olympic Park "would offer Londoners a new kind of experience when it opened in spring '14." Corner said, "They are very different on the one hand and similar in the idea of trying to dramatise sequences of movement and experience. The south park was always intended to be more actively programmed." He added, "It's conceived of as a place that will be actively programmed, so there's something on every week – a food festival, a concert, an art show." London Legacy Development Corp. CEO Dennis Hone said that he wanted the south end of the park to "feel like London's answer to Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens." Hone said, "In isolation, each of the things can seem trivial – a carousel, a fountain feature, an outside room with storytelling for children, tree-lined boulevards. In isolation, you might say 'so what?' But in combination, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, it could be quite magical" (GUARDIAN, 10/14).